


Kinktober: Massage

by moonmoth (greyvvardenfell)



Series: Kinktober 2019 [27]
Category: The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Genre: Body Worship, F/M, Massage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-11
Updated: 2020-04-11
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:27:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23586865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greyvvardenfell/pseuds/moonmoth
Summary: Julian and Reyja reflect on their life together so far.
Relationships: Apprentice/Julian Devorak, Julian Devorak/Original Character(s)
Series: Kinktober 2019 [27]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1697680
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14





	Kinktober: Massage

“Shall we, darling?”

Julian leans over and kisses my temple, rubbing his thumb across my knuckles. It’s early yet, but our plates are clean and we’ve had a long week. I nod and smile fondly as he slips out of the booth to settle the dinner bill. He waves back at the regulars who greet him but doesn’t stop to chat; all evening, he’s only had eyes for me.

When he returns to the table, he holds out his hand and helps me up, then bends down to murmur into my ear. “Barth says we should get out while we still can. He’s expecting quite a rabble tonight.”

“Yeah?” I glance at the bar, where Barth and his husband Akillion are checking off bottles against an inventory list. “Any desire to join that rabble?”

He cups my cheek and lifts my mouth to his. “I think I favor an evening in,” he says when our lips part. “With certain select company.”

We escape out the back door into the twisting labyrinth of the South End with Julian leading the way. We’ve lived here for several years now and I know how to get around just as well as he does, but he always insists. He’s not heading home, though. My mind flashes back to a frantic flight along these narrow alleyways chased by guards’ shadows, our clothes dripping blood and foul plagued water, when the hand clasped in mine was swathed in black leather and the face peering down to make sure I was alright had only one visible eye. I’m so caught up in the visceral memory that I hardly notice when he swings a rusted gate open and ushers me into the garden, now restored, in which we finally found sanctuary.

He takes me all the way to the stone bench beneath the starstrand tree before I snap back to the present and realize where we are. Soft blue light from the delicate flowers overhead that stretch their petals to the moon lends his pale skin an ethereal glow, but the love shining from him overpowers it, warmer than the cool night. He drapes his coat across our shoulders and pulls me against him with a contented sigh, resting his head on mine as I cuddle into his broad chest.

“I think I fell in love with you here,” he says softly, after several quiet moments pass. “Of course I had already, ah, developed feelings for you, but under this tree… You were so often on my mind, I thought I’d summoned you somehow, you know, when you showed up on the aqueduct. I almost couldn’t believe it! But it wasn’t until we got here that I had a moment to really collect myself and, ah, and piece everything together.” His kiss finds my forehead and he laughs gently. “I’m afraid I wasn’t at my most eloquent after that.”

“You weren’t eloquent?” I rub his thigh. “Pretty sure I cried a lot, yelled at you, told you a whole bunch of personal stuff for no reason, and then ended up going home with you anyway.”

“Erm… yes, well…”

“Yeah.”

“To be fair, we didn’t go to _my_ home.”

“We slept in a twin bed together, Jul. After an incredibly intimate first kiss.”

He clears his throat. “Yes…”

“And if you hadn’t promised to be a gentleman?”

Even in the faint fluorescence of the starstrand, I can tell he’s blushing. But his eyes sparkle when he looks at me, grinning mischievously. “Oh, my darling, if I hadn’t promised to be a gentleman, I would have absolutely ravished you. Over and over again, into oblivion. Do you have any idea how many times I woke up wanting you that night? And you were right _there,_ so close I could feel your heartbeat, but, ha, there was nothing I could do about it.”

“You showed amazing self-restraint,” I say, stretching up to nuzzle the notch of his jaw.

“I used to be so adept at denying myself the things I wanted.” His coat falls from our backs as he turns to straddle the bench and run his hands down my arms. Mirroring him, I scoot closer. His breath catches when I wrap my legs around his hips. “I’m not as good at that these days.”

“You don’t have to be.”

My body proves too alluring for him to ignore, but his grip is gentle, reverent. I open the snaps on one side of his jacket and peel the front panel back so I can comb through his chest hair in return.

“No. No, I don’t. But then again, I don’t want for much anymore, either.”

“Yeah?”

He blinks slowly, kneading at the plushness of my thighs. When he speaks again, each word is measured and deliberate, like he’s been mulling them over for a long time. “I suppose I misspoke, my dearest. I may have fallen for you here, but it wasn’t for the first time. I had, have, loved you for years. Sometimes I wish the cards had fallen differently, or that you remembered what it was like before, ah, before the Plague. How much we danced around each other, both knowing, both stuck in the futility of thinking about a bright future when there was so much death all around… But we found that future, didn’t we?“ He grins. "We found each other again, against the odds. And that’s all the proof I need to know that what we have is something special. Something precious. Really, well… really, I will love you until there’s no more future to be had, my darling, and even a little beyond that, too. You make me eager for every tomorrow.”

I slide my fingers up the column of his neck to pull him into a deep kiss, tugging on his hair to get him closer, closer, _closer_. He opens for me, letting go of my waist to wrap one arm around my back and cradling my head in his other hand. Before I know it, he’s lowering me to the bench, my ankles still crossed behind him. I gasp into his mouth when he thrusts weakly against me; he did a surprisingly good job of hiding his growing erection this time, but I can feel it now, stiff and hot even through the fabric of our pants.

“I don’t want a tomorrow without you, lovely.” Foreheads pressed together, I draw him into another gentle kiss and run my thumb along the crest of his cheekbone. “Let’s go home.”

“I was about to suggest the very same thing,” he replies. Biting his lip to keep himself in check, he disentangles himself and stands up, scooping his coat from the ground on the way. His eyes follow my every move as I, too, leave the bench, trailing my fingertips over his bare chest as I do. He walks close behind me as we wind out of the garden and back into the maze of South End streets. Shooting tantalizing looks over my shoulder every time we turn a corner, I goad him into giving chase up the switchbacks and staircases of the district.

We’re both breathing hard by the time we reach our front door. I make a show of searching his pockets for the key, squeezing his ass and cupping his cock. He grinds against my palm with the most delicious whimpers, his face flushing redder and redder. He only stops me when one of his blissful shudders snags his sleeve on the lowest of the sun-catching prisms hanging from the roof, rattling all of them at once.

“Safer inside,” he gasps, tugging the key on its delicate chain out of his belt and holding the door open.

I take his hand and pull him inside with me. We barely linger downstairs, kicking off our boots as fast as we can before racing to the bedroom. Julian nearly trips over himself trying to make up the time he lost on his more complicated footwear, but grabs the banister at the last second and manages to catch me in the hall. Damn his long legs, skipping stairs when he’s in a hurry! He slips his arms around my waist from behind, stopping me just as I slap a hand against either side of the bedroom doorway, out of breath and exhilarated.

“I win,” I pant, sagging against him.

“Mmm, so you do.” He rubs my belly, smiling as he plants a neat row of kisses down my pounding pulseline. “A champion if ever I saw one. How do you want to celebrate your victory, my love? I have, ahhh…” He starts to creep lower, lifting my shirt and dipping under the waistband of my leggings to rub my thighs skin-to-skin. “I have a few suggestions.”

Humming, I arch my back and glance at him. “Oh, really?”

His Adam’s apple bobs as he swallows. “A whole plan, in fact.” My belt falls, loosened by his nimble fingers, and my shirt is quick to follow. While he works at the fastenings of my undergarments, kisses rain down the muscle connecting my neck to my shoulder. I tremble as he scrapes his teeth over the end of my collarbone; he’s well aware of how sensitive that area is, how easy it is to rile me up by lavishing attention there. He catches my bra without looking when it comes undone and tosses it in the direction of the closet as he takes a step into the room, then another, turning so he’s walking backwards towards the bed. I go where he leads, caught up in him completely. I know he’s kissing me again. I know I’m helping him get his jacket and shirt off. I know we’re both naked when his knees hit the edge of the bed and he collapses onto it, bringing me down on top of him.

“You okay, Juley?”

“Better than ever, darling. You’re right where you should be.”

My heart skips, still pounding from our impromptu run. It’s not getting any easier to breathe with my mouth so occupied either. Julian takes the hint after I, rather unsexily, cough in the middle of a kiss, and switches his attention to my collarbones again while I focus on steadying my heaving lungs, twisting my fingers through his auburn curls to show my approval when his roving mouth settles somewhere particularly pleasant. After I finally get my breath back and make to meet his lips once more, though, he shakes his head, eyes soft and loving.

“Could you lay on your stomach for me? I couldn’t help but notice how tight your shoulders have gotten. Don’t worry, my dear, we’ll carry on afterwards.”

I shift off of him and crawl up to my pillows, arranging myself like he asked with my head on my folded arms. He rolls off the bed; I hear our chest of toys open and the sound of rummaging before the mattress dips on either side of my legs as he returns.

“We may even carry on in the middle,” he adds huskily, leaning close to my ear. “Like I said, I’ve lost any and all appreciation for delayed gratification I used to have.”

I laugh, muffled against my wrists. “What about my teasing?”

“Ah. Well.” He unstoppers a bottle. The scent of almond and amber, honey and vanilla fills the air as he rubs the oil he found between his palms, warming it up before he begins to work it into my skin. “That’s a different beast altogether, isn’t it?”

“Is it?”

“I think so.”

I groan as his strong, long-fingered hands glide along my back, all the way over the curves of my ass. Already the heat of his palms and the intensity of his focus feel like they’re working, easing the stress coiled in my shoulders and neck.

He continues, running his thumbs down my spine. “After all, when you tease, it’s for my own good. And I know you’ll never be too cruel to me. When I used to hold something just out of reach, it was as punishment. Punishment for the very crime of wanting it in the first place. A horrible system, to be sure, and, erm, not a habit I care to reacquire.”

I catch his eye the next time he repositions himself. “I'm not going to let you.”

“I…” He pauses, taken aback. Several responses seem to flicker through his mind, each one coming up short. Finally, he just smiles and folds over to kiss my cheek. “Thank you, Reyja. I know.”

He returns to his task, kneading knots loose with a new glow about him. Every few minutes he stops to nuzzle behind my ear or kiss a newly-relaxed muscle. The moans and grunts I can’t quite swallow don’t seem to affect him, though he eases up when I hiss in pain at the worst of the tight spots. Still, I can feel the heat of his erection just above my lower back, and I know how eager he was. If he wants to have sex tonight, I think I’m ready for it now.

“Hey, Juley?”

“Hmm?”

I raise my head and blink at him, smiling softly. “What was the next part of your celebration plan?”

His eyebrows shoot up, perfect arches over his heavy-lidded eyes. “Oh!” He laughs, curling around me so we can kiss properly. “Oh, darling, I’m afraid there’s been a rescheduling of events. You see, I was going to, mmm, to take you in my arms and fuck you every way I could think of: standing up, from behind, you on top, in my lap… you know, revisiting all the classics.” He punctuates each position with a jerk of his hips over my glistening skin. “Ravish you, like I want to do every time I see you. Like I've wanted to do since that first night we spent together.”

I squirm under him and he lifts himself up, letting me roll over so I can see his face. Too late I realize that the oil will probably stain the sheets, but it doesn’t matter. We’ve certainly dealt with stained sheets before. “But?”

“But, ah, I think I’ve changed my mind.” He smiles. “I didn’t used to do that, you know. Change my mind. Not often, anyway. There are a lot of things I didn’t used to do, a lot of subtleties I used to ignore. But then you came along. You showed me the difference between good pain and bad, stubbornness and perseverance, choice and chance. Oh, my love, I would’ve kept beating my head against the same walls until I lost the damn thing without you.” Shaky fingers skate over my forehead, down the curve of my nose and the soft peaks of my lips. “I can have what I want now. I don’t have to sacrifice anything or punish myself for it. Isn’t it amazing? Ahhh, I’d always known there was a difference between lust and love, but I didn’t remember what that truly meant until the instant that starstrand blossom lit up your beautiful eyes.”

Julian buries his fingers in my hair and kisses me hard. There are tears on my cheeks when we part, both his and my own.

“I changed my mind because I want to make love to you,” he whispers. “Of course, I adore fucking you. I’ll always adore that, and when you fuck me. But tonight, I want to be soft and sweet and gentle with you. I want to show you how much it means to me to walk into the future at your side. Nothing that hurts or comes between us or—”

“Or holds things just out of reach?”

He laughs. “Exactly. What do you say, dearest?”

I don’t even have to think about it. “Yes.”


End file.
